tag:destructoid.com,2006:blogStMcDuck's Blog :: DESTRUCTOIDhttp://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/avatars/0/32260.StMcDuckhttp://www.destructoid.com/blogs/StMcDuck2011-08-09T13:32:01Ztag:destructoid.com,2008:208352Why Im Done with iPhone Games2011-08-09T13:32:01Z2011-08-09T13:32:01Z<img src="http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/user/3/32260-208352-disappointmentjpg-620x.jpg"/>
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<br/>I cant count how many demos or $1 games Ive bought since I got an iPod Touch back in 2008. Every day I was looking for new games to try out, be it on the poorly-organized App Store charts or on mobile gaming-dedicated websites. If it was free or cheap and looked half-way decent, Id add it to my Touch and keep it around for a rainy day, or a slow day at work.
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<br/>Puzzle games, adventure games, RPGs, Angry Birds. They all provided minutes of fun. And then Id delete them.
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<br/>Download a demo. Play it for a life/round/minute. Delete. Download a $1 game. Get the point. Delete. Actually have some increment of fun playing something. Never come back to it again. Delete.
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<br/>I dont want to do it anymore. Im sick of it. These experiences, many based off similar experiences from other companies selling similar Apps, are lifeless. Sure, Tiny Wings is beautiful to look at, but after getting to level 6 and having the sun set, I stop caring. Sonic the Hedgehog? Sorry, touch-screen controls for platformers can disappear along with the US economy. Hero of Sparta made me both stop caring AND curse the controls at the same time.
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<br/>To be blunt, iPhone games arent fun.
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<br/>When I look at my iPod Touch as a gaming device, I throw up in my mouth a little bit. Its not a gaming device. Its a music player. If it was an iPhone, it would be a music player and a phone. I have used it for games, or rather, tried to use it for games, for over three years now, and not once have I experienced my Tetris Moment (Gameboy) or my Lumines Moment (PSP) or my Advance Wars Moment (GB Advance). That Moment when all that the system is and can be is absorbed into your brain. Its a moment of brilliance which is rare, and after three years of trying to find it amidst the mass of pointless, moronic, copycat, or just plain impossible-to-control games on the iPhone platform, Im done looking for it. No more wasted time trying to find a diamond in the rough. Its beyond a needle in a haystack now. The App Store is a wasteland that I no longer feel the need to trudge through. Theres so many things wrong with it that the occasional mildly-amusing cheap game that I may be missing wont matter.
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<br/>Im going to make a prediction: games on the App Store will suffer their own market collapse at some point in the next 5 years. Be it through lack of innovation or consumer indifference, the store will cease to be the money-printer it is right now. How many times can people pay $1 for a game theyve already downloaded fifty times under a different title? How many in-game lives must be lost to horrible touch-controls that can only be rectified by actual buttons? How many minutes must be wasted downloading and installing the next mini-game, only to delete it minutes later because youve seen all there is to see?
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<br/>My time is more valuable than that. Im not against indie games, or even spirited re-imaginations of existing games, but I am against the devaluation of games as fun. The iPhone is a great device (when people dont drive with it), and kudos to Apple for innovating in a space that had become stagnant with boring cell handsets, but games shall no longer grace my iPod Touch, or my iPhone if I ever get one.
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<br/>Im a gamer. I play real games. On real systems. <p class="post-photos">
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